Friday Report: 'Chappie' Crashes, 'Business' Bombs

by Ray Subers

Chappie

March 7, 2015

Faced with two fairly unappealing new releases, audiences avoided heading out to the movies on Friday.Chappie fell short of modest expectations, while Unfinished Business was the latest (and worst) bomb yet for Vince Vaughn.

In first place, Chappie earned an estimated $4.5 million from 3,201 locations. That's a fraction of director Neill Blomkamp's last movie, Elysium, which opened to $11.1 million in August 2013. It's also noticeably lower than last month's Jupiter Ascending ($6.3 million). Chappie could wind up earning less than $13 million this weekend.

Heading in to its second weekend, Focus (2015) fell 55 percent to an estimated $2.88 million. The Will Smith/Margot Robbie con artist movie has so far earned $27.4 million.

Playing at 1,573 locations, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel opened in third place with an estimated $2.7 million. That's more than the first Marigold Hotel made on any single day; that movie had a platform release, though, so this isn't a great apples-to-apples comparison. For the weekend, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel should wind up with at least $8 million.

In fourth place, Kingsman: The Secret Service eased 29 percent to an estimated $2.23 million. To date, the word-of-mouth hit has earned $92 million at the domestic box office.Unfinished Business opened in fifth place with a terrible $1.8 million. That's significantly lower than Vince Vaughn's last movie, Delivery Man, which took in $2.8 million on its opening day. Unfinished Business could wind up below $5 million for the weekend.

On Friday, American Sniper ($333.8 million) became the second-highest-grossing movie from 2014 ahead of Guardians of the Galaxy. By Monday at the latest, it will pass The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 to take the top spot.Weekend Projections1. Chappie - $13 million2. Focus - $9.7 million3. Marigold Hotel - $8.3 million4. Kingsman - $8.2 million5. Unfinished Business - $4.9 million